House Bill hb1223c1

    Florida House of Representatives - 2002             CS/HB 1223

        By the Council for Healthy Communities and Representatives
    Bean, Kilmer, Murman, Ball, Davis, Hogan, Arza, Haridopolos,
    Stansel, Cantens, Baker, Maygarden, Melvin, Ross, Brown,
    Harrington, Fasano, Littlefield, Brummer and Bilirakis



  1                      A bill to be entitled

  2         An act relating to health care; creating the

  3         "Women's Health and Safety Act"; amending s.

  4         390.0112, F.S.; revising requirements for

  5         reporting by medical directors and physicians

  6         of terminations of pregnancies; providing a

  7         penalty; providing for disciplinary action for

  8         successive failures to report; amending s.

  9         390.012, F.S.; revising requirements for rules

10         of the Agency for Health Care Administration

11         relating to abortions performed in abortion

12         clinics; providing for rules regarding

13         abortions performed after the first trimester

14         of pregnancy; requiring abortion clinics to

15         develop policies to protect the heath, care,

16         and treatment of patients; providing an

17         effective date.

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19  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:

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21         Section 1.  This act may be cited as the "Women's

22  Health and Safety Act."

23         Section 2.  Section 390.0112, Florida Statutes, is

24  amended to read:

25         390.0112  Termination of pregnancies; reporting.--

26         (1)  The director of any medical facility in which any

27  pregnancy is terminated shall submit a monthly report to the

28  agency, on a form developed by the agency. The report shall

29  contain information regarding each category reported in the

30  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Surveillance

31  Summary on Abortion which contains the number of procedures

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  1  performed, the reason for same, and the period of gestation at

  2  the time such procedures were performed to the agency. The

  3  agency shall be responsible for keeping such reports in a

  4  central place from which statistical data and analysis can be

  5  made.

  6         (2)  If the termination of pregnancy is not performed

  7  in a medical facility, the physician performing the procedure

  8  shall be responsible for reporting such information as

  9  required in subsection (1).

10         (3)  Reports submitted pursuant to this section shall

11  be confidential and exempt from the provisions of s. 119.07(1)

12  and shall not be revealed except upon the order of a court of

13  competent jurisdiction in a civil or criminal proceeding.

14         (4)  Any person required under this section to file a

15  report or keep any records who willfully fails to file such

16  report or keep such records may be subject to a $200 fine for

17  each violation.  The agency shall be required to impose such

18  fines when reports or records required under this section have

19  not been timely received. For purposes of this section,

20  "timely received" is defined as 30 days following the

21  preceding month. Upon successive failures to file, the

22  licensee shall be subject to disciplinary action by the

23  licensing authority.

24         Section 3.  Subsection (1) of section 390.012, Florida

25  Statutes, is amended to read:

26         390.012  Powers of agency; rules; disposal of fetal

27  remains.--

28         (1)  The agency shall have the authority to develop and

29  enforce rules for the health, care, and treatment of persons

30  in abortion clinics and for the safe operation of such

31  clinics. For clinics that perform abortions in the first

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  1  trimester of pregnancy only, the These rules shall be

  2  comparable to rules that which apply to all surgical

  3  procedures requiring approximately the same degree of skill

  4  and care as the performance of first trimester abortions. For

  5  clinics that perform or claim to perform abortions after the

  6  first trimester of pregnancy, the rules shall be comparable to

  7  rules that apply to all surgical procedures requiring

  8  approximately the same degree of skill and care as the

  9  performance of abortions after the first trimester. The rules

10  shall be reasonably related to the preservation of maternal

11  health of the clients. The rules shall be in accordance with

12  s. 797.03 and shall not impose an unconstitutional a legally

13  significant burden on a woman's freedom to decide whether to

14  terminate her pregnancy.  The rules shall provide for:

15         (a)  The performance of pregnancy termination

16  procedures only by a licensed physician. Abortion clinics

17  shall develop, promulgate, and enforce policies to protect the

18  health, care, and treatment of patients, including policies

19  relating to obtaining the informed consent of the patient and

20  to postoperative care of patients suffering complications from

21  an abortion.

22         (b)  The making, protection, and preservation of

23  patient records, which shall be treated as medical records

24  under chapter 458.

25         Section 4.  This act shall take effect July 1, 2002.

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